
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE ON OUR MINDS By Peter Filichia
Which of the hundreds of songs that Stephen Sondheim has written took him the least amount of time to complete? We’ll never know, but my supposition would be “No Life” from Sunday in the Park with George. You may assume I think this because it’s one of Sondheim’s shortest songs, clocking in at a mere […]

The Debut of Everything Sondheim By Peter Filichia
Have you been missing The Sondheim Review as much as I? More than a year has passed since we saw this nifty publication, which has meant, to quote two certain princes, agony. How we loved reading about matters Sondheimian from A (Anyone Can Whistle, Assassins, and even that piece of juvenilia, All That Glitters) to […]

A Second Chance to Appreciate Dear World By Peter Filichia
Here’s betting that people enjoy Dear World at the York Theater Company’s Musicals in Mufti this weekend much more than audiences did in 1969. Not just because it has a fine leading lady in Tyne Daly. After all, the original production had no less than Angela Lansbury, who, two years earlier, had won a Best […]

REMEMBERING FLORENCE HENDERSON ON HER BIRTHDATE By Peter Filichia
Would you really be surprised to learn that such a sweetie as Florence Henderson was born on Valentine’s Day? She would have been seventy-three this week, but, alas, Henderson died on Thursday, Nov. 24th – just three days beyond the fifty-second anniversary of her recording of Fanny’s original cast album. That made me recall the […]

The Mothers and Fathers of Musical Theater Invention By Peter Filichia
You’re pardoned if you’ve never known it, but since 1983, February 11th has been celebrated as National Inventors’ Day. Those who have been aware of the mini-holiday have honored such geniuses as Charles Babbage (who invented the computer), Karl Benz (the automobile), Willis Carrier (air-conditioner) and Hyman Kirsch (diet soda). Most honor Thomas Edison for […]